Universities and colleges are institutions extremely reliable on their staff. The knowledge of teachers and the passion of researchers are fuelling the position and the development of a particular Institution. That’s why it is crucial to find a fair time and attendance tracking software, to keep both the university and the staff secure and fair.
A University or a similar higher education institution finds itself in a complicated situation of managing man-hours of multiple employees and contractors. Also, the institution combines public funding, private donations, and research grants, making the financial situation especially muddy.
Last but not least, the educational institution combines employees of multiple levels of education, technical advancement, and attitude toward software. Thus, finding a tool that hits the balance spot between sophistication and easiness is nothing to be underestimated.
So what are the key features of a University-aimed time and attendance tracking software?
It is flexible
University is an institution like no other, with unique work routines. Thus, using a software with “one size fits all” philosophy is rarely a good idea. Thus, the time tracking software for universities or colleges needs to be easy to adapt to particular needs. Or it needs to be easy to use in the way the user sees the best, not necessarily the creator.
Delivering multiple ways to use the software, like offering a mobile application, web app, or kiosk is a good example of flexibility. Depending on the project to deliver the ways to count the working time can be different or staff may need to work in remote locations.
It fits your needs
Following the aspect mentioned above, the good time tracking software for an educational institution is not only flexible, but it also delivers the baseline features that make it usable out-of-the-box. There are multiple systems that can be fitted after hours of configuration and a week of implementation, But that’s not the point.
A good solution for the University can be adjusted to the needs within minutes if not seconds by delivering easy ways to manage the labels and adjust timesheets. Sometimes the amount of work required to tailor the software to the needs is the key argument against using it at all.
It is simple to use
Universities employ the brightest minds. But not all of these minds are young or tech-savvy. Time and attendance tracker is only one of the multiple tools to use. Thus, it should be as simple and easy to use as possible, without the need to deliver hours of training and hundreds of pages of manual.
With Calamari, the most basic form of time tracking is to hit the button “start” and write what is currently done in the window near the timer. And that’s all. There are more sophisticated features available for teams or more technologically advanced users, but they are not obligatory to use.
It is compliant
Although there are legal schools in most universities and legal advisors in all of them, compliance in human resources management is still a risky ground. In universities, there are multiple types of employees and contractors, including:
- Full-time employees,
- Part-time employees,
- People working on other types of agreements (like Ph.D. students delivering lectures),
- External experts cooperating on B2B model,
- International experts who work under other jurisdictions,
- External employees who are not directly employed by the University (like partners from business institutions).
Multiple types of legal contracts make this environment complicated. But this is only the first level of chaos to manage. There are employees on sick leave, maternity leave, or paid leave, and depending on the type of contract or their residence the number of days of vary.
Without a tool that supports this type of management the institution undoubtedly falls into chaos and will unwillingly violate employees’ rights sooner or later.
It is easy to integrate with existing tools
University, college, school, or any other educational institution needs to follow modern paradigms to survive in the increasingly complicated world. Thus, it is not surprising that Universities use multiple sophisticated tech tools. The pandemic delivered a strong impulse to accelerate the digital revolution, thus Microsoft Teams and Google Meet have become the bread and butter for academic staff. The same goes for many other business-oriented tools like Slack or Asana.
Calamari offers multiple integrations that make the tool a key element of the system the university uses to deliver its educational offerings, and thus it can be easily integrated to deliver better results.
It is centralized
A centralized system keeps all records in one, accessible place. This comes with multiple advantages. When all the information is stored in one place, the risk of losing a part of it is significantly reduced. No decentralization generates chaos in records and makes multiple teams or departments keep their information in various systems.
Also, delivering one, comprehensive tool encourages all teams to use a particular system instead of taking a top-of-mind one. It also reduces the amount of work the HR teams have to do by automating the data collection and validation.
It is secure
Last but not least, universities, schools, and colleges are undoubtedly large institutions with hundreds of employees on board. The institution needs to keep their data, including sensitive information. In the age of GDPR tackling this issue is even more challenging and any violation can end with a severe fine.
A specialized time and attendance tracking system is hardened against the cyberthreats on multiple levels:
- It offers centralization of access management — the risk of unauthorized access is significantly reduced,
- It offers a log collection — the administrator gets information about changes and modifications in the dataset,
- It is cloud-based — top cloud providers like Amazon Web Services deliver top-class security with teams counting hundreds of specialists constantly improving the system.
In fact, choosing a cloud-based attendance tracking solution is a clear way to mitigate most cybersecurity-related problems.
Summary
An educational institution finds itself in a troublesome situation, where the offer is tailored toward business without taking into account the characteristics of an educational institution. Thus, solutions like Calamari, which are flexible without getting blunt or overfitted, are the best response for the time and attendance tracking for universities.
If you wish to discuss the matter, feel free to contact us now.
Originally published at https://calamari.io on April 13, 2021.
